Amidst the rising focus of manufacturers on setting ambitious goals to incorporate more recycled products in their packaging system, the urgency for investments and partnerships to boost recycling in the United States has emerged stronger than ever.
PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA), in this regard, has announced a $35 million investment in collaboration with Closed Loop Partners to design the “Closed Loop Local Recycling Fund”, which is a novel circular economy initiative.
The new recycling plan will be created to modify the upcoming, small-scale, modular recycling systems in the U.S.
Primarily, the fund will focus on amplifying recycling activities in areas that were previously devoid of, or had limited access to recycling, reducing waste, and further opening a fresh supply of valuable materials such as recycled plastic (rPET).
Moreover, PepsiCo’s new fund will work in line with its sustainable packaging goals, dubbed as pep+ (PepsiCo Positive).
Jason Blake, Chief Sustainability Officer at PNBA stated that in order to enhance accessibility to recycling for larger American consumer base, the company must reinstate a supportive infrastructure, which will help PepsiCo retain high-quality material needed for packaging.
Blake mentioned that the firm’s end-to-end strategic transformation, pep+ has helped integrate every operation at the company with sustainability at its very core.
It was further added that being the sole investor in the Closed Loop Recycling Fund, PepsiCo will reinforce the existing U.S. recycling system with necessary changes to transform it into a circular economy.
As a part of the new collaboration, Closed Loop Partners will use the capital on establishing Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) with commercial-scale capabilities in the underserved communities of the country that have zero access to large-scale municipal MRFs.
Imperative to note, the disparity in recycling access prevails because of zero or insufficient funding, or due to unfavorable geographic proximity to the material processing facilities.